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Social media bullying and abuse is a depressingly prevalent issue in today’s world with almost 50% of teenagers admitting to having been targeted online. There is a direct correlation between online bullying and teenagers suffering mental health difficulties and now, 1 in 5 young people suffer directly with a mental illness.

With social media a growing beast, it is almost impossible to police and a newly formed organisation called No Never Ever is seeking to stamp down on online abuse to make it a safer and more enjoyable and productive environment.

Formed by parents and social media activists, No Never Ever seeks to prompt giants such as Twitter and Facebook to monitor the issue of online abuse more closely as well as educating young people, parents, guardians and teachers about the dangers and how to avoid them.

Actor Adam Rickitt, best known to UK fans as the Coronation Street star who played Nick Tilsley before Ben Price, is the first well known face to give his backing to the campaign. We caught up with him to chat about his passionate mission to make social media a safer place in a world where young people are more at risk than ever.

(Picture: No Never Ever/Adam Rickett)

During our conversation, he also revealed what he is up to these days, his wife’s direct experience with online bullies and his take on Corrie, the show which made him a household name.

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Clearly caring deeply about the issue of social media bullying, Adam told us: ‘The chaps who have started the campaign have teenage daughters and, like any father when their daughter hits her teenage years, they think “Oh my lord, the wider world”. From their perspective, they were worried about how vulnerable kids are on social media. Social media is worldwide and there is no respite from it.

This generation has been brought up on social media and it’s a major part of their lives. A negative experience on social media can massively take over your life. The younger generation are so at risk and there doesn’t seem to be any safeguards from it.’

(Picture: Adam Rickett)

Reflecting on an experience that saw his wife, Katie, plagued by messages of abuse from an online stalker on Twitter, Adam explained: ‘She just went on rants against her, calling her a bitch or a money grabber. Any time Katie ever tweeted anything, this woman would respond and the messages would go to not just Katie but to whoever she was talking to. She works on Good Morning Britain so if, for example, she retweeted something from the GMB account and this woman replied, she worried that these messages would be going to her bosses.

‘It was a really bizarre experience. We blocked her but when you try and get Twitter to take some responsibility, the most they can do is close the account – but she can then set one up the next day. She is probably still on there. There seems to be no protection in place. I don’t even know the half of what it can be but you do hear all sorts of horror stories about how it can really affect mental health. People have committed suicide because they simply can’t cope with this constant barrage of abuse.’

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Reiterating that the campaign from No Never Ever is not aimed at being anti-social media – in fact Adam was keen to point out that many aspects of social media are extremely positive the actor explained that the first step is to gain support for a government petition to introduce more guidelines and responsibility for policing social media and reducing the harmful effects. Beyond that, the group are keen to create educational resources throughout schools to help children, parents and teachers better understand and combat the dangers of social media. One of the angles they are considering is using music at promotional events to further highlight the cause.

‘Social media is an amazing tool and connects the world. But if a manufacturer say created a car with a safety risk, they would recall the car and fix it. If it’s their product, it’s their responsibility. We’re not completely tech savvy but there has to be ways for companies that have created social media and made it so big to combat and remove those not using it properly,’ Adam continued. ‘If they have the technological capabilities to create the media itself, they have the responsibility to create the safeguards too. We’re not naive and don’t think every negative comment can be stopped. It’s when there are barrages of it.’

Adam reflects on Coronation Street

(Picture: ITV)

‘I loved the show, I was so lucky to get that break. I left school without doing an acting class and got sent to this audition in my gap year. My agent said: “you’ll never get it but go for the audition experience”. I went on the Friday, got the call two hours later to say I had it and started on the Monday! It was an amazing experience for me – I do sometimes cringe when I see my early performances as I’d never had any acting experience and, like everything, you start off a bit green and improve with time.

‘Coronation Street was my acting school and it’s such a well oiled machine. It’s so, so good and it grounded me completely. I got to work with Jane Danson, Samia Ghadie and Helen Worth – I loved her to bits. I was in New Zealand doing Shortland Street, Coronation Street rang and said they wanted to bring Nick back. It was tempting but I had done that twice and I was loving my time in Shortland Street. I didn’t turn it down to knock the show – I absolutely loved it. They told me that they would recast if I didn’t, which I completely understood.

‘The weird thing is, I then came home for Christmas and ended up watching Ben’s first episode and it was such an out of body experience – it was very, very weird. He’s doing a brilliant job. What the show is doing at the moment, especially with the Platt family, is just brilliant.’

After leaving Coronation Street, Adam spent five years in the soap Shortland Street. He has spent time performing around the UK too and recently moved back to Manchester with his wife and is set to star in a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.

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He enthused: ‘Katie got recruited by Good Morning Britain so needed to be near to a central motorway – one day she can be winged to Newcastle first thing in the morning and the next it can be Cornwall so we got kind of stuck in the Midlands for a few years. Katie is now doing more up North and Manchester is a good hub for acting for me so moving home has been such an exciting opportunity. I have actually just moved into a house five minutes away from where I grew up and I just love it. We’re in that position now to explore areas and find out where we want for our forever home but personally, the city life isn’t really for me – I’m a bit of a countryside guy – so I’m more than happy with being up North’.

Adam will play Pip in the production of Great Expectations and he was keen to dispel thoughts that turning a Dickens work into a musical isn’t the done thing. He pondered: ‘It really tickled my fancy! Some people think it’s sacrilegious to turn it into a musical but I think Charles Dickens would love it. Suddenly a whole new generation might be drawn in. They might not know the classics and will find it through this. It’s a brand new script and score so it’s exciting!’

‘Some people might be stuck in the mud about it but I really don’t agree with that point of view. If Dickens or Shakespeare were around now, they probably would be doing musicals, TV and film – everyone wants to attract wider audience for their work.’

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But what about the future? Adam has an open mind. He said: ‘I’m just entering my 20th year in acting and I’ve been so lucky to have been constantly in work. I’ve reached that point where I want to do things for the joy of doing them. I must drive my poor agent mad because he gets these offers and I say “nah, it’s all right!” but it’s about doing it because you love it. You can’t do the jobs just for a pay cheque because you will fall out of love with it.

‘So I can’t say what I might do next – it could be TV work, more theatre, film – although I must say my real love is with camera work as you can really build a close connection with the audience through that medium.’